Map of the Sahara

Description:

This Map of the Sahara shows seas, islands, the Sahara Desert, governmental boundaries, countries, capitals and major cities.
Size: 1600x1027px / 528 Kb
Author: Ontheworldmap.com

The Sahara is the largest hot desert and the second largest desert on Earth by area after the Antarctic Desert. It is located in the north of the African continent. It stretches about 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from west to east and 500 miles (800 km) to 750 miles (1,200 km) from north to south; it has an area of about 3,600,000 square miles (9,200,000 square kilometers). The desert occupies most of North Africa, except for the fertile region on the Mediterranean coast, the Atlas Mountains in the Maghreb, and the Nile Valley in Egypt and Sudan.

The Sahara is bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, bounded on the north by the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea, and on the east by the Red Sea. To the south it is bordered by the Sahel, a belt of semi-arid tropical savannah around the Niger River valley, and the Sudan region of sub-Saharan Africa.

The Sahara partially encompasses the territory of more than a dozen states - Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, and Tunisia - as well as the disputed territory of Western Sahara. The vast expanses of the Sahara are uninhabited, with sedentary life limited to oasis areas and the valleys of the Nile and Niger rivers.

Major and principal cities in the Sahara include Cairo, Khartoum, Nouakchott, and Tripoli.